The type of bed frame to which this invention relates is a rectangular metal frame upon which a mattress and a box spring is typically supported. These frames generally comprise a pair of opposed side rails and a pair of opposed cross-rails which serve to interconnect the side rails, typically adjacent the ends thereof. Legs are ordinarily provided to support the frame.
Bed frames of the foregoing type have generally relied upon clamps, nuts and bolts, metal screws, rigid fingers receivable in slots or apertures, and the like for interconnecting the various frame members together and to maintain the proper spacing between the side rails of the frame. In general, these types of frames have been designed to be knocked-down and then folded up compactly for packaging, storage or transport. The bed frame is typically formed of several elements which are subsequently assembled into a frame for use.
There are notable advantages in assembling the frames in this fashion, that is through the use of either nuts or bolts, clamps, machine screws, etc. In the first instance these fasteners require the use of tools in assembling the bed frame elements. These component fasteners are also generally loose, inasmuch as they are not an integral part of the frame, and may consequently be separated from the frame members and lost. The use of clamps to hold the cross-rails together, for example, also presents a further problem, in that the distance between the side rails can only be accurately determined by a measurement.
A further disadvantage presented by the use of fingers on one frame element which are received in a slot in another element to thereby connect the frame elements is that a positive lock is not formed. That is, the fingers can become loosened such that they back out of the slots, causing the frame elements to become disengaged.
In view of these disadvantages of the aforedescribed bed frames of the prior art, it is desirable to provide an improved bed frame of this type with a mechanism for positively interlocking engagement of the frame elements without the use of fastening elements which may become disassociated from the frame, require tools, or which require more than a modicum of effort to assemble and to disassemble the bed frame.